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Eleanor Griffis, the publisher of the Peruvian Times Online (www.peruviantimes.com) and author of Lima survival Kit, A Guide for Foreign Residents, begins a monthly column for ACAP Magazine in this issue. You won't want to miss her “monthly musts.

Celebrated Peruvian folk singer Dina Páucar, also known as the “Beautiful Goddess of Love,” is receiving the distinguished roster of UNICEF goodwill ambassador today during a ceremony hosted by the United Nations.

Páucar, an iconic example of social change for Andean Indians and mixed-race mestizos and known for her philanthropy, is one of Peru’s biggest music stars and also draws huge crowds in neighbouring Bolivia and Ecuador.

“I am very proud of this. I have been working with children without telling anyone because I don’t believe that it is necessary to call the press every time you help someone,” Páucar told Terra Perú. “I have been dedicated to this cause for over 15 years and now I will be able to help on a larger scale because I will be working hand in hand with UNICEF.”

Approached by the UN last October, Páucar told reporters that she is eager to put her fame to good use to advocate for children in Peru and to support UNICEF’s mission to ensure every child’s right to health, education, equality and protection.

“It was a very long process,” Páucar said. She will working with Peruvian pop singer and composer Gian Marco, “because he also is a goodwill ambassador. Though it isn’t clear yet what I will be asked to do, I want to dedicate myself to the children of Apurimac, Cusco, Junin, Huánuco and Cerro de Pasco,” she said. Gian Marco worked as a composer with Emilio Stefan and won the Latin Grammy in 2005.

Other Latin American UNICEF goodwill ambassadors include Colombian Shakira Mebarak, Diego Torres of Argentina and Venezuelan Ricardo Montaner, all contemporary pop singers.

Paucar was born in the Peruvian highlands and came to Lima at the age of 10. After working as a street vendor and a housemaid, she reached stardom in 1994 with her single "Que lindos son tu ojos." or "Your Eyes Are Beautiful."

Her style of music is called huayno, a high pitched fusion of Andean and European instruments combining an almost Asian-sound with Latin and pre-Colombian rhythms.

Her life story was dramatized in a hit miniseries.